Pearl Technology Blog

4 Steps to Cybersecurity Fitness

Get your network security in shape.

What is physical fitness? In the simplest terms, it means fine-tuning your body to be the best that it can be. Whether you're running, weightlifting, or practicing yoga, there are a multitude of ways to ensure your body is operating the way it's optimized to run.

The same could be said for your cybersecurity plan. Just like neglecting your diet and exercise can have negative effects on your body, neglecting your cybersecurity plan can have negative effects on your organization. Thankfully, there are some steps you can take to ensure your cybersecurity is in great shape.

1. Assess.

Take a good, long look at your network and look for any vulnerabilities a cybercriminal may exploit. Is the network's password strong enough? Are you being selective in regards to who can access which files? Are you utilizing two-factor authentication? Are your employees using outdated or high-risk programs and software? Keep an eye out for areas where you're at risk and set organizational goals for correcting them.

2. Consult.

We can't understate the importance of consulting with your in-house IT or third-party IT firm. After you've identified potential risks, an IT professional can work to correct the problem. Pearl Technology can run penetration tests, in which our team of ethical hackers simulate real-world attacks to find any other vulnerabilities you may have missed.

3. Train.

Once you've identified problem areas and begin to patch them, it's imperative to inform your staff of these vulnerabilities and loop them into your organization's cybersecurity measures. One of the most effective methods is regular, mandatory cybersecurity training. Repeating the information and having your employees test their knowledge in a hands-on environment will make your best practices easier for your staff to remember.

4. Repeat.

You have to keep exercising and eating right to keep your body in excellent shape. Similarly, fine-tuning your cybersecurity once isn't going to guarantee your information's security forever—you have to keep at it. Cybersecurity is an ever-evolving landscape, and with every security patch, cybercriminals are always coming up with new ways to exploit users' systems. In other words, what was considered secure last year (or maybe even last month) may not be secure today. If you repeat this process regularly, you'll be able to stay one step ahead of the next cyberattack.

Just like there's no end to staying physically fit, keeping your cybersecurity in shape is an ongoing process. But also like physical fitness, good cybersecurity fitness can be achieved if you just work on it—in other words, exercise.

What are some ways you keep your cybersecurity optimized? Let us know in the comments!